I am in favour of this motion, noting that it is a motion to do a study, not a motion to implement paid parking anywhere in Owen Sound at this point, and there does seem to be a lot of confusion out there in the public about exactly what it is we're talking about here. Some people think it is a fait accompli; it's already happened – that's what we're talking about tonight.

I don't know about the rest of you around the table, but I sure hear a lot about Owen Sound's high taxes.Not just at election time. It's a topic of discussion for many people when I'm out and about and they hear I'm on city council. It's almost the first thing, after winter control, out of their mouths. You know, I hear it from people who live in the city, to whom I am directly responsible as a city councillor, and I hear it from people who have chosen to live outside of the city, but continue to enjoy its amenities. In seven years sitting here at city council, one thing has become clear to me. One of Owen Sound's biggest problems, if not THE biggest problem facing this city is 22,000 people paying for services for 50,000 people. It's unsustainable. We can't continue in this way. The taxpayers aren't going to be able to manage it. If we're ever going to bring taxes down in Owen Sound, or at least keep them at manageable levels, we have to take action. And we have been taking action. Council and staff have worked very hard to bring development to Owen Sound to build our tax base – you can see the results of those efforts all over town right now, and it's amazing to see. We spent considerable time and effort to attract new businesses and we're starting to see those come to town as well.

The other area that we need to explore, and this proposition underlines it, is non-taxation sources of revenue. We have to find other ways to make- money to offset the burden on our taxpayers, and I think that this study will be the start of that process. I understand clearly that no one wants to pay more for anything, but that's exactly what Owen Sound taxpayers have been doing for years – paying more for everyone to enjoy. A number of years ago – and Councillor Dodd, we were thinking along the same lines apparently – a few years ago we did a police costing – highly, highly unpopular – I heard a lot about that. But you know, at the time, I realized that we need to look at everything, and it's not always going to be popular.

In this case, Harrison Park has become a bit of a flash point for people. It's the park everybody loves; it's the gem in the the city; it's the one place that they want to be able to enjoy. And it's entirely possible that whatever study we do may find that it's totally impractical to have paid parking in Owen Sound, but I want to know. I would like to find that out. Because at the end of the day, if I can do anything to alleviate the burden on city taxpayers, that's what I plan to do. And we sat around this budget table every year and people say - “Well cut. Just cut. Cut more.” And I think you all know how difficult that concept is. Even in the results of our Community Satisfaction survey tonight, “Cut police and fire”. Well, great idea. I don't know how that works exactly. Because there's so much involved there, I mean we've been talking about those things for years.

So I'll just try to wrap it up but I think, you know, people may think this is an unreasonable action but in my mind, studying ways to save the taxpayers of Owen Sound money is not unreasonable at all.